Acoustic tile



A. L. SPAFFORD ACOUSTIC TILE Nov. 26, 1935.

2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Dec. 10, 1930 2 Sheets-Shet 2 A. L. ISPAFFORD ACOUSTIC TILE Filed Dec. 10, 1930 Nov. 26, 1 935.

v Patented Nov. 26, 1935 ACOUSTIC TILE I Alien L. Bpafi'ord, Cloquet, Minn, assignor to 111 Wood Conversion Company, Cloquet, Minn, a

corporation of Delaware Application December 10, 1930, Serial No. 501,28!

'1 Claim.

The present invention relates sound absorbing structures and acoustic material, having particular reference to a sound absorbing tile particularly useful in wall structures, including ceilings 5 and side walls.

The art of sound proofing has developed to a considerable extent in recent years and numerous sound absorbing materials and structures are to be found on the market. They require consider- 10 able care and labor in installation to give a pleasing and artistic installation. Where comers, recesses, and irregular shaped areas are to be covered the materials needto be operated upon and arrangement of material must be carefully l5 planned for appearance and effect.

The present invention aims to provide an acoustic tile, which may be made in small sized units, which is complete initself, and which needs 2 only to be applied by suitable means to form a 2 sound absorbing wall, and which can be readily made in special shapes.

One object of the invention is to provide a unitary acoustic tile.

Another object is to provide an acoustic. tile 25 which has heat insulating properties and which may be installed in numbers to provide a heat insulating wall.

Still another object is to provide a box-like unit containing sound absorbent material which is light in'weight, rigid, and easily adapted to being adhesively united to a support.

A particular object is the provision of a wire screen box with wire screen areas at the box top, which is the interior face of the unit, useful as a basis for anchoring an adhesive substance.

Various other objects and'advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of several illustrative forms of the invention which are shown in the accompanying drawings and from the exemplary well structures embodying such units.

Fig. 1 represents arectangular sound absorbing tile with a portion cut away showing the interior construction in cross-section.

Fig. 2 represents a. corner of a. piece of continuous blanket which may be used as a. basis for manufacture of the units.

' Fig. 3 represents a corner of a rectangular piece 50 of the blanket of Fig. 2 with a portion of the insulation mat cut away to provide a margin of wire screen base. I

Fig. 4 represents a comer of the article of Fig. 3 showing operations on the screen preliminary 55 to folding into a. box form.

unitary porous fibrous mat of any desired thick- Fig. 5 represents one side of the box already formed.

Fig. 6 represents the complete formation at one corner of the box structure.

Fig. '7 is aview similartoFig. 1 mowinga's modified construction of a unit having a crimp at the edge of the box structure.

Figs. 8 and 9 are views like Figs. 1 and 7 showing other modifications.

Fig. 10 is another form of the invention incor-- 10' porating a rigid frame within the structure.

Fig. 1 1 is a fragmentary plan view of the form shown in Fig. 10 showing the components thereof. Fig. 12 is a diagrammatic representation of a wall formed of the units of Figs. 1 or 10. 15

Fig. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a wall structure showing in detail the relation of the tile to a support. v

Generally the invention comprises a unit body or block which has a perforated face behind which isa sound absorbent material. The structure is rigid and is capable of being supported, from either face by numerous means. It may rest on supports, or it may be secured at the edges, or it may have its rear face adhesively united to a. wall.

As sound absorbent material I prefer to use a wood fiber mat which may be made by a continuous process as described in Weiss U. 8. Pat-- ent No. 1,336,403. The material of this type is generally known as Balsam-Wool and is useful as a heat insulator as well as a sound insulator and absorber. One of the advantages of using the Balsam-Wool lies in the process by which it is most readily made. This comprises dropping loose fibers onto a moving sheet, and spraying into the dropping fibers a liquid adhesive. wherebythe fibers become adhesively united to the moving sheet and to each other in the form of a ness. Onto a finished mat a facing is adhesively applied. For heat insulation blankets two paper facings have been employed which are readily adapted to flex and pass from a supplying roll of such material over rolls in the machines used to manufacture such an insulation blanket.

To make a continuous length of sound absorbing material with the same machines, one sheet facing is made of perforated material which may be supplied from a, roll and which will flex sulficiently for manufacturing purposes. Wire screen is the preferred material of this character, but it will be understood that suitably thin perforated sheet material, such as flat metal could be used, or even a semi-rigid flexing non-metallic sheet which is or can be perforated to admit sound. One feature of the material is rigidly in small sizes and ability to be deformed without breaking to. form a more rigid unit. Wire screen is by far the most suitable because it is highly perforated, semi-rigid, flexible, and tough within the degrees required for this invention. Its strands are individually flexible, and the screen sheet may be deformed without diiflculty with a limited amount of expansion and compression within the sheet itself by displacement or stretching of the strands.

In making the units of the present invention I prefer to use as starting material a sheet of Balsam Wool mat between a wire screen layer and a sheet of paper as facing layers. However. it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this material and to the method of using it which is more particularly described herein as the preferred method of practicing the invention.

Fig. 1 represents a piece of a tile which may be square or oblong. It has a wire mesh box-like containing form 10, an interior sound absorbing filler such as fiber I I and a sheet backing such as paper l2.

From a sheet of starting material I cut a block or section, a corner of which is shown in Fig. 2.

It has a fiat screen facing l3, a fiber mat l4, and a facing such as paper IS. The size is determined by the size of the screen facing which is to be employed to make the desired containing form. A portion of the paper and fiber body is cut away peripherally, forming a margin l6 of exposed screen, a corner being shown in Fig. 3. The size of the remaining fiber section determines the approximate size of the unit. A unit which-is one foot square and which has a one inch thickness of fiber is particularly useful.

The piece with marginal screen may then be operated upon to form the unit in various ways. One method is to push back the fiber mat at the lines l'l so that a tool, as in a. die machine, may press down on the screen against a blank to deform it on the lines 11 and internally thereof on the lines l8 (shown dotted in Fig. 4) Y to define what becomes a narrow bevel face l9 shown in Fig. 1. In the same operation cuts may be made at the corners of the marginal screen i6 as indicated in Fig. 4, leaving a tongue 20. Two opposite edges of screen may be so formed, making four such tongues extending in parallel relation. Thereafter the two sides carrying the tongues, designated 2!, are bent up and over the fibrous mat forming a. screen side edge 22 and an extension of the side which provides a margin of screen backing 23. The tongue 20 may be bent around the corner. The remaining portions 24 of the projecting screen are likewise bent up and over forming screen sides 25 and extensions of screen facing 26 which overlie the extensions 23 at the corners of the unit.

The overlapping corners may be bound together, preferably by a U-shaped spot-weld 21 about edges of the contiguous portions. The tongue 20 may be spot-welded at 28 to the screen or edge face 25 if desired. This structure forms a rigid box-like container and a light-weight rigid fiat practically inflexible unit.

A modified construction is shown in Fig. 'l in which a projecting crimp 30 is formed in-the projecting screen rather than the bevel face I 9 of Fig. l. The tile units like, Fig. 1 are adapted to be mounted side-by-side in'block formation, edge to edge, and the bevel faces give a neat and artistic effect at the junctions of adjacent units. In other forms the crimp 30 affords a ridge which may be used in certain methods of mounting and it permits ,a space to exist between adjacent 6 units. Such a space may be desirable for numerous purposes.

By using the blanket sheetfrom a continuous forming machine, I have provided initially a body in which the screen is adhesively united to the 10 sound deadening material. The adhesion to the screen and offiber to fiber assures that the fiber mat will stay in place and that it will not sift out of the screen or become loosened therefrom. The mat is visible through the screen and a loose 15 area or an area of the fiber raised from the wire appears as a dark spot in the unit. Consequently, the uniform adhesion of the mat to the screen presents a uniform appearance at the face of the unit. 20

It is not necessary that the mat and screen be united as herein described. A separate screen box-like form may be made, and a mat inserted thereinto with adhesive applied at the time of insertion, or thereafter through the face of the 25 screen. In practice, beginning with the manu- I facture of the blanket, I may use a previously painted or decorated screen upon which fibers are matted, or I may apply paint to a unit when completed, and at that time make special designs. 3 Paint applied to a completed unit by spraying may reinforce or provide an original adhesive for the screen and fibers therein. The adhesive may be omitted entirely but its presence is of a great benefit giving desired qualities to the unit.

Other forms may be provided. The bevel face and the crimp may be omitted and a perforated box or screen container 31 (Fig. 8) be employed without overturned portions. In Fig. 8 the screen sides 32 of the box extend to the top of 40 the fibrous core 33. A sheet of paper or other material is used as a rear facing on the unit. In this form an adhesive 34 may be applied between the sides 32 and the core 33 which unites the core and screen in the absence of an adhesive at 45 the face. Other means of union may be provided such as U-shaped pins 35 acting like hairpins on the well matted fibrous core.

Fig. 9 shows a structure like that of Fig. 8 with the provision of a crimped edge 36.

In Figs. 10 and 11 other means of securing rigidity or additional rigidity are shown. A rigid frame 40, as of wood may be used to house the sound absorbent material and to support and carrythe screen. The screen facing 4| carries 5 between it and the rear facing sheet 42, a sound absorbent material 43. The screen is carried around the frame and over the back as shown at 44 where it provides a good mesh work for anchoring the unit in a plaster or by a plaster or 60 a glue or cement to a flat supporting surface.

All of the units here described are light in weight and slightly flexible. They have a yield be applied over the entire surface or only at portions thereof, as at the edges, where the perforated material is. The installation is easy and simple and requires little skill and equipment.

Fig. 12 represents a corner of a wall or ceiling structure in which units 46 like those of Fig. 1 are installed side by side, the bevelled edges 41 giving a pleasing effect.

Figj'l3 illustrates how the tile units may be cemented or glued to a wall surface. A wall material designated 50 may be a plaster surface, a wall board or other such material to which a glue or cement will adhere. The tile units 46 may be glued or cemented to'the support as at 5|. The cement 5i may cover both the wire mesh 52 and the paper backing 53 or one, or the other. The units may be secured to a wall board 50 prior to mounting of the latter in the wall structure. A wall board having units previously mounted thereon may be used as a ceiling or side-wall panel and be nailed to studding as shown by the nails 54 entering a stud 55.

The paper backing herein described acts as a sealing sheet for the otherwise porous unit, and

such a structure makes the-unit a. heat insulator as well as a sound absorber. The tiles together the seal from the backing sheets to the supports and back to the backing sheets, thus completely sealing a wall structure of such units against dratts. The sealing-oil sheet at the rear of the unit preventing'the circulation of air is effective for preventing the formation of "lath marks when the unit is next to laths or the like. 5

The units may be readily formed with a fireproof structure. The screen of wire is of course lire-proof. The fibrous core might be made of asbestos, but this is not necessary since the wood fibers may be readily flre-proofed. Asbestos pa- 10 per backings may be used. However, this is not I necessary, as a sheet of Kraft paper with a sodium silicate used as adhesive therefor effects fire-proofing of the paper. It may be used either within the unit for uniting the paper to the 15 fiber or as an adhesive on the outer side of the unit to mount it. The asphalted paper, in single layers, double layers, plain or creped, may be treated with sodium silicate and the material rendered fire-proof. The silicate permeates the 20 tion is not to be considered as limited to the exact ALLEN L. SPAFFORD. 

